Off The Grid

The USS Batfish, the meanest nuclear fast attack submarine ever built, sits on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, deserted, but still operational—20 years after her decommissioning. The President sends Nick Connor, ex-Green Beret, to find and board the ghost ship and retrieve information that could explain it’s existence, while helping expose a powerful Washington cartel, trying to keep it secret. More

The USS Batfish, the meanest nuclear fast attack submarine ever built, sits on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, deserted, but still operational—20 years after her decommissioning. The President sends Nick Connor, ex-Green Beret, to find and board the ghost ship and retrieve information that could explain it’s existence, while helping expose a powerful Washington cartel, trying to keep it secret.

On March 17, 1978, somewhere above the Arctic Circle, the USS Batfish, outfitted with the highly proprietary Baffle Quieting Sonar, which was coupled with the submarine's incredibly powerful nuclear core, showed up to intercept and track a Soviet submarine—which it did for fifty days, undetected. Code-named Operation Evening Star, the Soviets didn’t know that the Batfish had followed them for so long, and then simply disappeared, until US Navy Chief Warrant Officer John Anthony Walker sold the information to the Russians.

Over thirty years later, a large object took shape right alongside of Nick as he floated in the Sea of Japan, having just completed a covert mission in North Korea. It had no headway but came straight up out of the depths like a leviathan. Even though Nick's eyes were accustomed to the dark, he still couldn’t see her, but he knew she was there. There was no wake. The USS Batfish rose silently out of the black depths below him like death incarnate.

Off The Grid, rich with details of submarines, will take you over the edge on a thought-provoking adventure.

Mark is the author of three fictional thrillers set against the backdrop of nuclear power; Red North!, Off The Grid, and his newest, The Elephant's Foot. Drawing on a degree in Nuclear Technology, thirty-five years of experience working in the nuclear power industry, and six years aboard a nuclear submarine, Mark is uniquely qualified to write these realistic and gripping stories.

Mark lives with his wife on a ranch in California, and is a third degree black belt in Shotokan karate.